Page:The roamer and other poems (1920).djvu/113

Shape that gazed on him from his young heart's depth.
So mortals see, in the dim dusk of earth—
Shadow that is, but substance that shall be—
The infinite beauty of the world diverse
Grow one and integral in fairest forms;
But if the sight clouds o'er, and evil thoughts
Mar and distort those images of grace,
They perish, soul and image, as thou sawest
In the dark wood of warped, degenerate things,
Returning to the uncreated deep.
But, let the soul retain its native ray,
Which is the master-spirit of the eye,
It penetrates the beauteous shows of things
(Such is its nature) to the infinite
That round embosoms it." "Glimpses of this
My first years knew," the Roamer thoughtful, said,
And ocean memories drifted through his mind;
"I do remember me of my dim birth
Beside a pine-hung shore; now mythic lands
Hold less of mystery than that low coast
Where first, a boy, I counted the ninth wave,
And saw it through the emerald swell and gleam,
Make to the beach, and comb, and fall, and shoot
Up to my feet its bright, smooth-sliding foam,

While the long wave resounded down the sands,